I'm Egil, based in Oxfordshire. I've been growing succulents since about 2018. Mostly from seed, and mostly Agaves. I don't have many special ones, but slowly added a few. My most special Agave at the moment might be a A. victoriae-reginae White Rhino. I've had that for 2-3 years now, from a small pup, and it's producing two pups itself now.
Apart from the Agaves I've grown some cacti from seed, some Cycads (Dioon and Cycas species - I just love how they unroll their feathery leaves) and baobabs (I've worked in Africa for some time, love those trees, so just tried some seeds), and a bunch of Aloe polyphylla. Tried a few years and usually had 1-3 plants out of 10 seeds, so tried a year with 30 seeds and had about 28 plants
I grow most of these in a 8'X12' greenhouse, which I keep frostfree in the winter, most A. polyphylla are outside now though.
I like spiky Agaves, and one project I'm excited about at the moment is A. utahensis eborispina. I've wanted to grow these from seed for several years, but all seed I ordered failed to germinate. Last year I was offered seeds by someone who had collected them himself. He sent some A. u. eborispina and A. u. nevadensis and they germinated really well, and are growing well now.
A few weeks ago I was alerted on Instagram about a BCSS event in Wantage. I belief the post might have been from Tina? I went, saw some fabulous plants, and became a BCSS member! There were some really nice variegated agave pups for sale, but those were (still?) a bit outside the range I'm willing to pay. I buy a nice variegated A. parryi though, and a A. parryi huachucensis excelsior.
My largest polyphylla:
A. utahensis eborispina, sown in February, starting to show their elongated spines earlier this month.
What's not to love about something like this? Nice colours, nice spines.
